Rabbit eating strange

Question
Hello! Just last Thursday my 2 year old Japanese Harlequin got neutered. That night he didn't touch any food or water, but I thought nothing of it. The next day he still had not eaten or drank anything, so I called his vet's office and they recommended fresh (not from concentrate) pineapple juice and to try making a mush with his pellet food. Just one day of syringe feeding a mash of pellets and diluted pineapple juice, he started drinking on his own and last night it appears that he ate some food, but not much. I stopped syringe feeding to see if he'd pick back up on his own. Now he lightly nibbles some hay, a pellet or two of food, and now his yesterday's news litter too. I discovered after getting his gut moving again that he also has an "infected" (no discharge, doesn't feel very hot, but very puffy. I have talked to his vet again since but couldn't get him to the office.) scrotum from his surgery and he started being given Tetracycline (200mg 3/day if you're curious) for that (it was sent home to be started the next day after his neuter). His fecal matter varies from soft-but-not-runny to very small, very dark, very hard, not ball-shaped pieces...and he doesn't make very many.
I guess my real question is if I can do anything else for him so he'll stop eating so much litter and start eating more hay and food pellets. He used to eat half a cup of timothy-based food everyday (more if I let him) and now I'm lucky if he'll eat 1/8 of a cup in a day!

Answer
Dear Vicky,

To tell you the truth, I would get this bunny to a good rabbit vet for a second opinion.  Not only is it pretty unusual for a newly neutered rabbit to develop an abscess at the surgical site (sometimes they do react to the sutures), but tetracycline is one of the "last choice" drugs for rabbits.  I'm not really sure why they would prescribe that without doing a culture and sensitivity test on the pus coming from the scrotum.  Please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/culture.html

and please find an experienced rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and get your bunny there ASAP, before the infection becomes more serious.  I know I may not have all the details and am hearing only one side.  But from what you've told me, I would not go back to this vet for a rabbit.

For information on GI stasis and how to treat it, please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

Hope this helps.

Dana